This invention relates to a recording medium and a recording-reproduction system provided with the recording medium.
With the conventional recording-reproduction apparatus carrying out recording and reproduction by means of a magnetic head, contraction of a track width to increase track density results in a decline in the S/N ratio at the time of reproduction. Therefore, it has been necessary to elevate the relative speed at which the magnetic head slides along the surface of the tape and the tape travels in order to carry out reproduction without a decrease in the S/N ratio.
With a PCM recording apparatus, for instance, recording and reproducing times to a tape of a unit length are made of short. With a recording-reproduction apparatus in which the magnetic head is made to contact the recording medium, the effective life of the recording medium is extremely shortened.
With the longitudinal recording method using the conventional magnetic head, a demagnetized region progressively increases in area as data is recorded with higher density in a magnetic recording region. Particularly with saturated recording such as digital recording, it is extremely difficult to elevate linear recording density due to the rotation of a magnetic vector in the recording medium. Recently, a perpendicular magnetic recording system has been developed. This new recording system elevates the density of linear recording, and has a theoretically excellent property for high density recording in that a demagnetized region in the recording medium more decreases, as recording density increases. However, the new recording system still has the drawback that where it is attempted to increase track density, then the S/N ratio drops due to the contraction of the track width.